The young Raoul Hausmann moved from Vienna to Berlin with his family in 1900, remaining here until his emigration in the year 1933. From 1912, he published in Herwarth Walden’s magazine Der Sturm and subsequently in other avant-garde publications such as Die Aktion, Die Pleite or Die freie Straße. As a member of bohemian circles in Berlin, he regularly met together with numerous artists, scientists and philosophers. From 1918, he was a protagonist and leading member of the Berlin Dada Movement, for which he co-organised the First International Dada Fair. After 1923, Hausmann turned to Constructivism and concerned himself with questions of natural science, making studies of optics and acoustics and practising photography. When he emigrated to France, his extensive archive remained in Berlin in the possession of his wife Elfriede Hausmann-Schaeffer and their daughter Vera. The archive, which now belongs to the Berlinische Galerie, contains letters, texts, photographs and works of art by the “Dadasopher”, as well as numerous documents from the Dada period (manuscripts, photographs).
The Raoul Hausmann Archive has also been published under the title Scharfrichter der bürgerlichen Seele. Raoul Hausmann in Berlin 1900-1933.